4 Dec 13

The news from Detroit, from a friend in the finance business:

“Who joined the DPD years ago, thinking he had secure pension benefits,
just got that bubble broken! All those rosy promises, made by smiling
politicians, were lies, and the sin is double, because they knew full-well they
were lying when those promises were made. With straight faces, they
blithely gave away money that they knew would never be there!

Today, nearly every state has a dangerously unstable pension system that is
glossily underfunded, by any standard. The same can be said for most big
cities (not just Detroit), and for the federal government too. They’re all
either broke now, or inexorably going broke!

The advice ‘you’re on your own’ goes well beyond just carrying a firearm!

The dream of living large on a fat pension, is just that! Virtually none
of those pensions, public and private, are anywhere close to being
adequately funded, nor sustainable, and everyone with eyes to see, knows it. Only
the naive hang on hollow promises of the past, from the lips of politicians
who couldn’t have cared less.

However, in their relentless effort to take good care of themselves, those
same politicians (seeing handwriting on the wall) have racked-up multiple
pensions, by double and triple-dipping, so, when forced to take a
percentage-hit on each pension, the aggregate may still be sufficient for them to
get by.

The average police officer and fire fighter will not be so lucky!”

Comment: The point here is that we never get to relax, and we never get to
stop working. The last generation of Americans to “retire comfortably”
has long gone! Even the best of situations can be rendered hopeless by
unfunded pensions (as we see), or by hyper-inflation, and it will not matter how
much money you have saved-up. None of us can afford not to stay current
and actively on top of our game.

People don’t come to me for financial advice (thank Heaven!), but I believe
I’m safe in saying:

“Never give-in to adversity. Never trust prosperity. And, never fail to
take full note of fate’s irritating habit of doing exactly as she pleases!”

“Live or die. It’s a choice. Make it, or have it made for you!”

Robert Schulte

/John